Pure Evil got lots of laughs from Mary Jo and Alice as they
were giving out samples.
Both quickly agreed Tobacco was Pure Evil!

I invite you to share what you do when you see a
young mother-to-be smoking?

Also, how do you react when you see smokers with
kids in the car?

Response from Canada

Mixed feelings re pregnant smokers. Know
they're addicted and ignorant,
but angry b/c 99% of that ignorance is wilful, not b/c there is no way
for them to know any better. They're unnecessarily and wilfully hurting
their babies.

As for smoking in a car w/ children, there is just no excuse. None at
all. Don't know how those people can live w/ themselves. Anyone stupid
enough to truly believe that's okay wouldn't have the intelligence to
tie their own shoes, let alone obtain a valid driver's license. Slowly,
law courts are starting to take notice and taking such behaviour into
consideration in custody battles.

Most smokers - and tobacco companies were gleefully aware of this and
used it to their advantage in promoting tobacco use - would, if down to
their last few dollars, let their children go hungry and buy cigarettes
instead of food.

Addiction makes parents love their cigarettes more than they love their
kids. I always feel so sorry f/ kids whose parents smoke. Apart from
what these people are doing to their kids' health, including
irreversible genetic damage that can harm future generations, imagine
never knowing the comfort of coming home to a clean-smelling bed and
always reeking of squalor, even when the clothes and hair are freshly
washed. Imagine your friends not being allowed to come over to your
house b/c your parents smoke. Imagine growing up knowing that, no matter
what happens, your parents will defend their addiction, no matter how
sick it makes you, even if it threatens to kill you, and that you are
always second in their hearts to tobacco.

That a parent would put his/her children's needs second to smoking just
underlines how evil addiction really is and how utterly depraved those
are who sell and/or defend it.

Response from Michigan

Now that I know smokers are prisoners of
tobacco pushers (addicts), I no longer see much point in approaching them.
There is no more point in telling smokers than in telling Jews at,
say, Auschwitz, that they'd be killed if they continued in that institution.
Telling individuals one on one is not the solution. The real solution is to
wipe out the institutional system giving rise to such deaths.

Likewise, the solution to tobacco has to be
eliminating the causes, including the mere existence of the institution of
tobacco manufacturing and selling. This includes prosecuting pushers for
murder, see precedents at
http://medicolegal.tripod.com/tobaccomurder.htm

Response from New York

I think that many people who smoke have no clue to the damage they are doing
to their children when they smoke with the kids present. So Im willing to
have them given a warning the first time. But if a doctor or school nurse
sees a child repeated coming in with ear infections, asthma, or other
symptoms of exposure to cig smoke, then I think the parents should be
reported for child abuse. I think the parents should be given a clear
warning, they should be told how they are harming their kids, and they
should be given help in quitting. But after all that, if they continue to
smoke in front of their kids, then I think they should be treated as any
other child abuser.

I told one mom that she might as well just put her cigarettes out on her
childrens skin if she were going to continue to smoke in front of them. At
least that wouldnt kill them, I told her. This is a mom who loves her
kids, but she became very irate and said what she does in her own home is
her own business. I gave her lots of information about the harm SHS does to
kids, but she said Im not stupid! Everyone knows that smoking is bad and
second hand smoke is bad! Yet she continues to smoke in front of her
kids. Denial is so strong that somehow she lives with this dichotomy: I
know Im hurting my kids- I love my kids.

I think that in her denial she doesnt really believe shes hurting her
kids, because I dont think she would do it if she really believed that.

Well, Mike, in NY weve gotten smoking among adults down to 16.8%!!! Weve
come a long way. But there will always be work to be done and lives to
save in our lifetimes. The battle isnt won, but at least were moving in
the right direction!

Response from Alabama

Mike, here is something you can use on one of
your tobacco sites, if you can use it:

I have had asthma my entire life. Contrary to what some people believe, you
don't "outgrow" it, any more than a child would outgrow diabetes. It is a
serious, chronic lung condition in which the airways are sharply and
suddenly restricted due to such triggers as exercise, allergens, weather
changes, or smoke.

I always tell people I can "feel" cigarette smoke before I can smell it. I
feel my chest get tight, and I start to wheeze. It literally feels like I
have a brick on my chest. I have to carry an inhaler with me at all times
just in case I am exposed to a trigger. Just today I went to our mailroom,
and someone had the door propped open so they could smoke just outside. Even
so, the hallway was full of smoke. My chest immediately tightened, and I
began to cough. Of course, I was able to use my inhaler, but my chest will
be sore the remainder of the day, and my voice will crack on the telephone
from having used the emergency inhaler.

When I go out to eat, I ask the hostess to seat me far away from the smoking
area, even if it means waiting a while. I learned this lesson the hard way.
Several years ago I was waiting for a table at Ruby Tuesday on Southside.
The hostess seated me in nonsmoking, but I was right next to a table of 10
women who were all smoking heavily. I didn't want to create a scene, so I
quietly asked the hostess if I could wait on a table deeper within the
nonsmoking section. Despite my efforts to be discreet, the smoking women
mocked me and had a big joke at my expense. I guess they thought I was just
being prissy.

My pharmacy is adjacent to a MedHelp office. Every time I went to pick up my
prescription, there would be nurses outside smoking. I had to walk through
it just to get my medicine. And overall, I'm fairly healthy. Think what it
must have been like for someone elderly to pass through that. It took
several phone calls to their office manager to get that stopped. The PawPaw
Patch now limits their smoking area to a separate room on the porch, which
has also been a huge help.

So my experience has been that it never pays to approach a smoker about what
they're doing. These are just two examples; I could go on with many more.
They don't care if they are hurting you, or themselves. They consider it
their right and that it's none of your business. I've tried to understand
it, but it's hard for me to be objective.

Then I turned around and showed her the "Tobacco" on the back, and she
immediately told me that her college roommate needs to see the message,
but she would not like it, because at different times she smokes 3 packs
of cigarettes a day,

She shared this smoking roommate smokes lot more during exams.

Was kind of neat that she said that during exam times, that she would
take her smoking friend to the thrift stores shopping so that she would
spend most of her cigarette money. I thought what a dear caring friend.

I asked her what this smoking friend was majoring in at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham, and she told me marine biology.

I asked her was her smoking friend an environmental activist and she
answered, "Yes, and she is also a vegetarian."

We both agreed that it didn't make sense that she would be so concerned
about animals and the environment while destroying her body with
tobacco.

I encouraged her to show this young smoking friend the Web site on the
back of my shirt.
Www.UpInLove.com

Amazing what reaction I continue to get from this Pure Evil
T-shirt that I bought for less that $3.00, and then had the "Tobacco"
and "UpInLove.com" professionally engraved on the back.